John.. I do study the plants and spend a lot of time going through the new catalogs as they come out it's fun to see what the new introductions are and what made them.They also will give you some insight on what plants are working for them Barry Blyth's catalog has a section devoted to seedlings and what's coming from him as well as in the plant descriptions he a lot of times will tell you if the plant is fertile or will set pods.
I am not much help when it comes to the technical side of genes and what colors are recessive etc...The good majority of the newer plants I am crossing together are from a handful of hybridizers and if you read the pedigrees most are a paragraph long and involve many years of crossing different seedlings together until they get what they want. I am taking there newest plants offered that I have and mixing them together hoping to pull out different colors and patterns while adding ruffles to favorites in my garden. Hope this helps with what I'm looking for
